Pittston Area’s Shawn Shimonis (white) is in total control of Wyoming Area’s Shane Emsley at 133 lbs. Shimonis took the match in a technical fall with a score of 14-0.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Winning over 100 matches in his career, Nat Obrzut (top) looks up at the clock in is 7-0 victory over Pittston Area’s Sam Hankey at 285 lbs.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Wyoming Area’s Riley Pierce (green) is in control of Pittston Area’s Johanzel Mendez pinning him at 1:25 of the second period.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Pittston Area’s Haden Harris (white) bridges before Wyoming Area’s Michael Appel pins him with 3.2 seconds left in the first period.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Pittston Area’s Michael Demarco (white) nearly pins his Warrior opponent Gabe Rosengrant. He took the match 19-16.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
EXETER — Taking two different approaches, Pittston Area’s freshmen lightweights Mikel Roman and Tim Riefler each posted their 24th win of the season Wednesday night to get the Patriots started toward a 47-20 victory over host Wyoming Area in the Battle of the Bridge, a non-league wrestling match between the two rivals.
Roman continued to show off his late-season improvement when he used a third-period escape to pull out an 11-10 victory over Chase Wilhelm in the opening bout at 107 pounds.
Riefler followed Roman to the mat and, in just his second bout since returning from injury, pinned Joshua Seamon in 20 seconds of their 114-pound bout.
From there, the Patriots never trailed while closing out their regular season with a 21-6 record, second-best in school history.
Roman (24-8) has won nine straight since losing three times in the Richard “Chooch” Chulada Duals at Honesdale Jan. 11.
Wilhelm led 8-2 in the second period and picked up two points in the last four seconds of the period to force a 10-10 tie.
“He’s come a long way,” Patriots coach Dave Krantz said. “It came down to the end, I’m happy to see that he came through it. We just went over (Tuesday), ‘don’t give up points in short time’. He said, ‘coach, I thought I heard the buzzer’.
“He let him up with one second left. It almost cost him the match.”
Riefler (24-5) has needed just 54 seconds for his two pins in his only bouts since Jan. 15. He had been limited to receiving a couple forfeits during that time because of a wrist injury.
“He’s ready to go now,” said Krantz, who protected Riefler by resting him the District 2 Dual Meet Tournament to give him his best shot in the individual postseason that begins next week.
Pittston Area received forfeits for Justin Toalongo at 121 and Brody Spindler at 215.
Toalongo’s forfeit made it 15-0.
Connor Novakowski earned Wyoming Area’s first points with a 17-1 technical fall in 2:12 against Jaheim Butler at 127.
Shawn Shimonis countered with a technical fall for Pittston Area at 133. He won 18-0 in 3:02 over Shane Emsley.
In the wildest bout of the night, Pittston Area’s Michael DeMarco defeated Gabe Rosengrant 19-16 at 139.
Rosengrant led 3-0 after one period and 12-5 after two, but DeMarco twice hit seven-point moves, combining takedowns into near falls, in the third period.
Wyoming Area’s Michael Appel gave up the first takedown, but pinned Hayden Harris with three seconds left in the first period at 145.
The Patriots answered with consecutive first-period pins at 152 and 160 for a 35-11 lead.
Chase Baron pinned Lincoln Smith in 33 seconds, then Dominic Innamorati beat Jacob Grabko in 1:16.
Riley Pierce gave Wyoming Area its second pin by defeating Johanzel Mendez at 172 in 2:35.
Pittston Area’s Wyatt Sweder needed just 17 seconds to defeat James Bates at 189.
Brody Spindler added a forfeit at 215.
Wyoming Area closed with a win in the final bout.
Nate Obrzut scored takedowns in the first period and the closing seconds of the third for a 7-0 decision over Samuel Hankey.
The Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 champion Patriots had been trying to fill the one more match they were allowed, which would have given them a shot at tying a school record for wins in a season.
“We came up one short,” Krantz said. “It was a nice year.
“It gives us something to shoot for next year.”
